March 2025
Magic sneaks up on you, and all of a sudden you are immersed in it. Like a child in a bubble bath, you find yourself surrounded in and delighted by the magic that happens when good people do good things. Such was my experience taking 13 Canadians to Cuba in January 2025. One traveller brought with them the book Infectious Generosity, which they shared with the rest of us. It quickly began to feel like our theme…
Even before we left, there was the spontaneous donation of $1,000 CAD from a dairy farmer couple in Ontario who had come with me to Cuba in 2011 on a farmer-to-farmer tour. Do some good with it, they said. Supplemented by further donations from a couple in our tour group and a local medical clinic, we delivered $2,000 in much needed medical donations to the Children’s Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Havana. Individual donations were pooled and shared with a local CDR and the Cienfuegos chapter of UNEAC (Cuban artists, writers and musicians).
Following our visit to Cuba’s iconic Finca Marta, one couple in our group – who had brought down the book – was so inspired by the work of Fernando Funes Monzote that they generously donated $30,000 CAD to Finca Marta to help support his vision of community agriculture. I will be wiring this off in a few weeks and Fernando’s head is already dancing with the equipment he will buy and share with the other farms.
But this generosity didn’t begin in 2025. Something in the warmth, generosity and bravery of Cuba and the Cuban people evokes it…. Back in 2013, twenty Canadian farm couples who had come with me to Cuba over the years and been guided by my long-time Cuban tour partner Inti Napoles put together a “social capital” mortgage fund (zero interest, payback in 5 years) of $22,500 that allowed Inti and his wife to purchase a home. From some, this was a gift; Inti paid the rest back in 3 years. In May of 2020, when Cuba’s tourism economy – already reeling from Trump’s increased sanctions – was brought to a standstill by COVID, twenty-five Canadian farmers – some of them the same – put together an emergency fund which, over time, grew to $15,000 CAD (much of it gifted) to support Inti and his family through COVID times. Additionally, the two international projects I developed and led in Cuba to enhance dairy production and strengthen farmer cooperatives were supported by the contributions – in time and money – of Canadian farmers.
My 2025 group came home wanting to know how they could do more. How they could pressure Ottawa to stand up for our long-time friend Cuba when Trump inevitably turns his malevolent eye on this tiny Island with the temerity to be socialist and the discipline to say no to Trump’s request to open hotels, casinos, golf courses, beauty pageants, television programs and media outlets?
We are about to enter a federal election. A perfect time to raise this. Cuba has sent doctors around the world to support communities. It is time Canada stood shoulder to shoulder with Cuba in the face of the American bully, generously committing aid and trade and investment to support the right of the Cuban people to sovereignty, dignity and respect.